Dear Church Family,

What an incredible concert last Sunday evening! I’m so grateful for Carey and Michael and their teams. The choir and orchestra, and the children’s choir truly led us to worship. I wanted to share part of the testimony of Marnie Thielke, who went to be with Jesus recently. Pete, her husband, gave me permission to share. It just shows you that God can multiply our offerings to Him to change eternity:

Marnie Thielke and John Ensor were fellow students at Bethel College in the 70’s. In 2013, they reconnected at a fundraiser with two foundations in Texas. John was seeking to fund a campaign designed by the pastors/leaders of the underground church in China, to train up 1 million people in their churches in biblical pro-life ethics and equip them to rescue mothers and babies from forced abortion.

At that presentation, one of the foundations was skeptical because John’s work in China was new. But because Marnie knew John, that foundation decided to fund $125k for this massive campaign. A year later, in 2015, seeing the results, the leaders of the underground church networks set out to train up 8.2 million people in the value of life and the call to rescue the innocent. They ended up training about 2 million people. Today, there are 5 pregnancy help clinics operating inside Chinese hospitals rescuing about 1,200 babies a year. The believers that serve there report that about half of the mothers rescued come to trust in Christ, and sometimes whole families are transformed. This year, researchers in China have asked for help in learning why pregnancy help services are so effective and are looking for ways to offer such help in more hospitals. What John learned in China in terms of starting movements, is now being done in 34 countries and 27 languages. Marnie is proof that the Proverb is true: A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in the setting of silver” (25:11).